The Avengers’ Secret Weapon to Beat Thanos in Infinity War

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Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War will pit Earth’s mightiest heroes against Thanos as he vies to collect all six Infinity Stones in order to wipe out half of the universe with a snap of his fingers. To say it’s going to be tough for the Avengers to stop a master plan of that scale is the understatement of the century, but lucky for them, they already have a secret weapon to beat Thanos. And her name is Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch.

Watch the video above for a demonstration of Wanda’s powers to go along with our theory.

Once Thanos gets his mitts on a few Infinity Stones, he’ll become exponentially more powerful. But Wanda could prove to be a match for his shiny new weapon based on what we saw her do in Captain America: Civil War. She was able to swiftly take down Vision when she used her powers to control the Mind Stone embedded in his forehead. That’s right: it looks like Wanda has the ability to manipulate Infinity Stones.

From Avengers: Age of Ultron, we know that Baron von Strucker gave Wanda her powers when he experimented on her and her brother Quicksilver with Loki’s staff, which of course contained the Mind Stone. Her abilities came directly from that stone, and that connection may very well be why she has the power to control it. But what if that power extends to the rest of the Infinity Stones? As Volstagg said in the stinger scene to Thor: The Dark World, it’s dangerous to keep Infinity Stones close to one another, and in the comics we know that’s because they all have a bond and want to be together, which might mean that Wanda’s influence over one stone might carry over to the others.

The plot of Infinity War is clearly pulling from the Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity comic books, but in those Wanda didn’t have much of a part to play, so we don’t know how her powers would have affected the Infinity Stones there (or Infinity Gems, as they were known at the time). Her ability to manipulate any stone is unique to the movies, so she is very much a rogue agent in this epic showdown.

It’s also important to note that the same directors and writers who made Civil War are also making Infinity War, so it’s a real possibility that they established this trait so it could be used in a later film against Thanos.

Of course, Wanda is still relatively new to using her powers, and using them on Vision’s stone looked like it took a lot of effort, so it’s hard to say how much of a match she would be against Thanos, who looks like he’s quite familiar with what the stones do and how to wield them.

Exit Theatre Mode

But Thanos’ quest for the Infinity Stones might wind up being his undoing because in order to collect them all, he’ll have to forcibly remove Vision’s stone, and we’re all but certain that would end Vision’s life. Vision in the comics was an android whose mind was based on a program, so even though She-Hulk ripped him apart in Avengers: Disassembled, Tony Stark was eventually able to rebuild him, like fixing a computer and restoring your lost files. But Vision in the movies was given the spark of life by the Mind Stone, so it’s hard to imagine he would survive without it, and he just happens to be Wanda’s romantic interest. The loss of Vision would seriously traumatize Wanda, and as we saw in Age of Ultron when Quicksilver died, the death of a loved one caused her to unleash a whole new level of power as she instantly vaporized several Ultron drones.

Though the circumstances were different, the House of M comic book event saw Wanda under extreme stress, causing her to lash out with her powers and use them to mold the entire planet and all of society to her liking in the blink of an eye. If Vision does indeed die, then it’s easy to imagine Wanda’s resulting rage will increase her powers to even higher levels… and that just may be enough for her to wrest control of the Infinity Stones from Thanos and put an end to his master plan.

Check out our interviews from the set of Infinity War, including more on Wanda and Vision’s romance.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.